DON’T DO WHAT YOU LOVE

I know what you’re thinking after reading the title of this blog post. “Nitara, this is the complete opposite of what you’ve been preaching.”

Yes, this is true. The absolute complete opposite!!

My mind shifted immediately when I was hit with a perspective that I never heard before, but one that made so much sense to me. For lack of a better cliché here, it felt like it literary hit me like a ton of bricks!

Today’s topic is to find a need or problem, and discover how you can create a sustainable business out of fulfilling that need or solving that problem.

After listening to MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime, I feel very enlightened. He offered sound insight into building wealth. He’s a successful entrepreneur and his book provides a realistic and practical approach to finances and business. None of that “be positive and money will just magically flow to you” BS that self-proclaimed gurus attempt to sell you.

Hisaudiobook is over 12 hours long. It took me a month of listening to it each time I got in my car to finish it. And every hour was worth it!

MJ said don’t start a business on the foundation, or premise, that you just do what you love because chances are there are other people who also love to do what you love to do. You’ll have a saturated market that will inevitably drive the cost of those products/services down causing it to be that much more difficult for you to be in business.

Instead, if you enjoy doing something and you love it, just do it—whether you’re getting paid or not. Don’t make money a prerequisite to doing what you love. Obviously, I’m not referring to having people take advantage of your talent and skills for free. And they will try. Trust me. Don’t let them. Get compensated for your work and value that you bring to the table. However, I’m more so speaking against the idea of having to hustle for money just to be able to do something you love. You get caught up in the hustle and you forget about the craft you fell in love with in the first place.

And don’t confuse loving what you do with passion. Passion motivates us to take action to make amazing things happen. Your passion is what motivates you to start your own business in the first place. I don’t know what that is for you. Helping people. Providing for your family. Getting a car. A house. Giving to cancer research. Those are passions.

Trying to turn “doing what you love” into a business may or may not work based on too many variables that you can’t control that will more than likely leave you inevitably frustrated.

In order to create a sustainable business:

(1) You should make sure you’re serving the needs of a demographic or solving a problem for them.

(2) It should be something that you’re good at, enjoy doing, and/or can learn how to do exceptionally well. However, this only matters if #1 above is fulfilled.

(3) You want to make sure you’re in a niche market in order to decrease your competition, thereby increasing your value and your ability to thrive. Doing what you love doesn’t guarantee that you’re fulfilling a need, nor that you’re in a niche market. It just means you’re doing what you love and hoping that someone will pay you for that. Not a sustainable business practice.

(4) It’s important that part of your business has a way for you to not only generate active income from your direct efforts, but that it has the ability to become passive. If you have to directly depend on your own efforts in order to sustain your business each month, this can be emotionally draining, especially if you’re a service business or a product business with one product. You’ll always be in “hustle mode” for the next client.

You may have to hustle for the first 2-5 years in your business as you’re building your passive income pipeline, but hustling for new clients should not be your endgame.

Let me set the record straight. I’m not advising anyone to stop doing what they love. Continue to. I’m giving you advice on what it takes to have a sustainable business. I’m currently implementing this into my own writing business.

Even though I’ve been in business for 1 1/2 years, I’ve been writing for over 20 years professionally. Yes, I happen to love and enjoy writing. But I also want to be a thriving and successful entrepreneur. If I want both my writing agency and film production company to last, I have to make them sustainable. I’m currently working to make sure I keep my amazing clients beyond satisfied and happy by providing the best service possible while I research and create different income streams in my own businesses. I haven’t “arrived” yet, but I’m happy about what I’m building and where my business is going.

What about you? Are you happy with yours?

Today’s LESSON is to not only bring passion into your business, but a practical perspective that causes it to grow.

FUN ASSIGNMENT: Brainstorm. Ask yourself if your business is fulfilling a need or solving a problem. Or if you haven’t started your business yet, ask yourself this same question before printing out business cards and hiring a graphic designer to create your logo. Secondly, look for ways that you can create passive income from your existing business or the one you would like to create if you haven’t done so already.

Nitara Osbourne owns The Infinite Writer Agency, LLC, which provides content to producers, publishers, and entrepreneurs seeking help with developing their life stories into nonfiction books and movie scripts. Ghostwriting and content writing services are provided for clients as well. If you’re an accomplished entrepreneur, and are looking to tell your story, contact Nitara Osbourne. InfiniteWriterAgency@gmail.com.